Daddy's Little Princess
by clueless in seattle
Summary: Bobby, Alex, kids, picnics in the park and probably more diapers than you can shake a stick at...preferably a very long stick...sigh...


_**Disclaimer:**__All of the characters are the property of Dick Wolf. I thank him, the writers, the directors and all the great actors who brought them "to life" for our benefit. Any "liberties" I have taken with them is motivated only by my fond admiration (and a few personal quirks I will seek "help" for)._

_**AN:**__ This story is not set within the accepted "canon" for the characters as it is only officially portrayed by the TV series. So I get to "fool around" with them in ways in which they've never been seen, stretch the limits of that and totally suspend the "reality" that is "fiction" to start with…now there's a contradiction in terms!!! _

_(And yeah Goren I know the proper word for that is oxymoron…the remote needs new batteries by the way…you wore them out with that constant channel hopping again)_

_**I thought it was time I brought some happiness into Alex and Bobby's lives…**_

**DADDY'S LITTLE PRINCESS**

It was a warm and sunny day in Central Park as Bobby and Alex settled themselves with their picnic, and what had seemed to him enough gear to equip an infantry battalion as he'd carried it across the grass. But it was the same for everyone when you had two small children.

His son, everyone said was the image of him and only him not able to see it, getting hold of his plastic baseball bat and catching Bobby at the back of the legs too keen to start practising his swing. Though for a little guy three months off four, the stinging sensation on his own calves suggested it promised to be a good one. And like him the boy had turned out to be a lefty. What Alex had said when he was a baby and he'd reached for his first rusk with that hand.

Finding the ball amid diapers and baby wipes and a complete change of clothes for both kids, Bobby hitched his son on his hip and got _"permission to be excused"_ for them both to go take batting practice. Promising their little boy Poppa would pitch to him as he toted him away from the shade of the tree where Alex and his daughter were sitting.

Asleep in her stroller Bobby had discovered when she was born a whole new meaning to fatherhood. If his firstborn was a joy and a _"love at first sight"_ as he first held him in his arms, his daughter took things to a whole new level. Brought out in him a different kind of pride and sense of needing to protect her.

The sort his baby girl would resent in a few years time when her father would become suspiciously paranoid about any boy she dated. Though Bobby was determined she'd be at least 35 before that ever happened and Alex would often tease him he had _"another woman"_ in his life that made her jealous. Bad enough he and their son could vanish in stores to be found inspecting toy forts and discussing the merits of model cars. When she arrived 18 months ago Alex would find him flicking through rails of tiny lace dresses. Before concluding none of them would make his daughter look more beautiful.

Nor was it true Alex only got his attention these days when he _"wanted something"_ and one thing in particular. As he would often point out to her afterwards, it wasn't like she'd been unconscious throughout. Indeed, it was probably her waking him one morning to take advantage of the fact the kids were _"for once still asleep honey"_ resulted in her being seven months pregnant again. Rather sooner than planned but then sometimes spontaneity had its place in life. And the morning a few weeks later they found out about _"Baby Three"_ it was hard to say which of them did the best job. Of feigning surprised concern about the turn of events and trying not to grin from ear to ear.

It was a wonderful couple of hours they had as a family. The kids not finding ways to squabble about something as small children do and Alex working that magic again with the aid of _"Flopsy Bunny"_ to get their daughter to eat the foods she was less keen on, but which were good for her. He'd relied rather more on discrete bribery with their son Alex didn't spot, to achieve the same thing. But then she had an idea about the _"guy secrets"_ the pair of them shared at times they didn't think she was listening. And likely knew what most of them were.

It wasn't just because the children had eaten their lunch, including the items two little faces wrinkled in disgust about, that decided Bobby go to the concession stand for ice cream. Alex seemed to have developed for the first time a food craving with this baby centred on ice cream. Pistachio for some reason whose colour would be enough to make Bobby feel sick, though that was something she had been spared after a terrible time with the first pregnancy. The sort of vomiting almost every morning had him feeling helpless and guilty for three months.

He was on his way back with one large pistachio, two chocolate and one strawberry because his princess asked for _"Pink Daddy",_ before being reminded by Mommy _"please"_ was supposed to go with that. When Bobby heard a sound that was hideously familiar from his time in the Army. That of the M16 rifle set for automatic fire. The screaming beginning as he dropped the ice creams and began to run. Across the almost straw coloured grass of the park in the hot summer. People running the other way in panic crashing into him like the Jets defensive line as the gunfire continued.

Bobby was running as hard as he could, aware to his right of the sound of a slightly panicked horse and with a sudden pain in his chest like he'd been hit. Almost tripping over a man on the ground that seemed to be wearing a scarlet coloured t-shirt, as from somewhere beneath him a child cried. Some guy half dragging his terrified and frozen teenage daughter. Who had a mass of crimson freckles on her face matched the colour of the gloves she had on and saying over and over again _"Mom?"_ Hearing that in the fraction of a second as the older man tried to pull him away with them, yelling _"Stay back pal"._

A tackle Bobby eluded as he hurdled three elderly people flat on the grass. One man moaning, one wearing a blue dress with large red spots and one man crawling around and feeling for a white cane that was shot to matchwood. Making for that tree, as again that horse neighed and another sound interrupted the bursts of M16 fire. That of an automatic pistol in the three shot pattern they taught you at the Police Academy. Three times that noise registered in his ears as to his right Bobby saw the masked gunman fall, a uniformed cop wearing riding breeches and a large horse trotting away down the path.

The grass under the tree where they picnicked had turned purple in places. Where red met green. Around Alex looked to be leaning asleep against it. Around his son on his back, the plastic baseball rolling in the faint breeze. Around his daughter whose pretty yellow dress would get dirty if she stayed on the ground like that and whose little hand was reaching for her favourite toy.

Bobby sank to his knees, clutched _"Flopsy Bunny" _to his chest and began to scream.

"Bobby!" hissed an urgent voice in his ear "Wake up"

"Eh?" he finally quit crying out "Huh? What?"

"You were dreaming" said his wife stroking his brow which was damp

"Oh…was I?" he rubbed his face with both hands and felt the sweat suddenly turn cold "I'm sorry I woke you baby"

"It's the kids I was more worried about" she said softly as she lay down slightly awkwardly beside him "Way you were moaning I wasn't sure you hadn't snuck some other woman into the bed with us"

"Be kind of crowded with four of us in here" Bobby sighed as she rested her very swollen belly against his hip and he put his arm round her.

"Do you remember it Bobby?"

He yawned "Uhuh. You don't want to know sweetie"

"Never say that to a woman" she laughed softly into his neck "Even you should have worked that one out by now"

"Just as well diapers took less time for me to get straight in every sense" he kissed her forehead. "Rate we seem to have reason to need them. Maybe we'll figure out birth control one day"

"I recall I already spent many hours screaming that at you Bobby. In the delivery room at Cedars Sinai" the bulge pressed against him shifted slightly "I swear room 2 in maternity is now known as _The Goren Suite_. And don't change the subject and try to distract me. What were you dreaming about?"

"It wasn't a dream baby" he sighed "It was a nightmare. I was married to Eames and…"

"Oh say no more Bobby" she muttered "They all start like that. She transferred to US Samoa. Three and half years ago. Soon after I gave birth to your Goren Minime and just before we got married and in that order…now go back to sleep…Daddy's Little Princess will be awake soon…and I'm sure as hell not getting up"

_**AN**__: Hmmm…do I hear the sounds of hammer and nails constructing a gallows or bundles of wood being stacked up around a stake…(runs to getaway broomstick)…I'm really, really sorry…no I'm not…mwahahahahaha…_


End file.
